New Yoshi P Interview

[Veritas-Ancora]

the focus need to go entirely away from ultimates and savage and actually maybe focus more on the core game, it would be nice for a change, and nope I am not opposed savage and ultimates... but let me put it like this... savage and ultimate should be like 5% of the update to the game where as the other 95% is adding to the game as it is for the actual core players.

Before yelling nasty words at me... the way I am trying to put it is that you get the amount of hard content as it is now and has always been but actually be adding additional 95% more to the game as in general as well.

It is all like Dungeon, trial... ilevel update content with new 'raid' (enhanced Trial and ex Trial)

A bigger investment into the game as it is than just the basics to try and keep it alive with the absolute basics as it is currently been going for the past few years.

I think content like Exploratory Missions should evolve into more engaging content like Eureka Hydathos. That was peak performance. Challenging content with aggro enemies and high-HP enemies followed by a whole system of taking on an even harder Proto-Ozma.

I just wish Occult Crescent could aspire to be Eureka Hydathos.

[Selsix]

The entire thing is padded. "Lets spend a full zone familiarizing ourselves with the culture of these interdimensional soul vampires before we pass any kind of judgment" shouldn't have fucking happened. If the characters were actually being written as themselves, they should all have started formulating a plan and putting it into motion, because they should know that preventing souls from reaching the Aetherial Sea or dredging them up from it endangers the Source and all remaining shards even ignoring the morality of it.

Hard agree, honestly. My biggest issue with DT was the first half due to being a boring meaningless slog, but the second half was also absolutely horrid because of this. I couldn't even believe we were CONSIDERING humoring these people abusing souls like they were given everything the previous story had established about the cycle of souls and the Aetherial Sea. We aren't talking about "culture" here, we are talking about gluttony so extreme you are perverting the very cycle of reincarnation to keep yourself breathing or gain power. I was flabbergasted, the first thing we should have done was recoil in disgust and the second thing should have been to set all their trapped souls free and destroy the means of harvesting, not go comfort the populace and try to make them feel better about potentially dying eventually. That could all come later.

[CNitsah]

I just wish Occult Crescent could aspire to be Eureka Hydathos.

I disagree with that, but only because Hydatos is the final part of Eureka, and OC isn't. Please don't put high difficulty content (or rather content needing high organisation in this case) in the middle of the narrative. put that at the end, like they did with BA.

[Veritas-Ancora]

Hard agree, honestly. My biggest issue with DT was the first half due to being a boring meaningless slog, but the second half was also absolutely horrid because of this. I couldn't even believe we were CONSIDERING humoring these people abusing souls like they were given everything the previous story had established about the cycle of souls and the Aetherial Sea. We aren't talking about "culture" here, we are talking about gluttony so extreme you are perverting the very cycle of reincarnation to keep yourself breathing or gain power. I was flabbergasted, the first thing we should have done was recoil in disgust and the second thing should have been to set all their trapped souls free and destroy the means of harvesting, not go comfort the populace and try to make them feel better about potentially dying eventually. That could all come later.

That's how I feel about The Arcadion.

The whole thing is annoying that we're a fighter. We can't just meet these people outside of the arena and tell them their lives are at stake?

What is even the point of us participating?

If they don't listen to our heeds, go ahead and kill yourselves. Knock yourselves out. Doesn't affect us one bit.

[Selsix]

That's how I feel about The Arcadion.

The whole thing is annoying that we're a fighter. We can't just meet these people outside of the arena and tell them their lives are at stake?

What is even the point of us participating?

If they don't listen to our heeds, go ahead and kill yourselves. Knock yourselves out. Doesn't affect us one bit.

It's just bad writing all around, really. The entire expansion from start to finish is boring, nonsensical, poorly paced, and directly spits in the face of the previous story and the source material. Even the side content like the Arcadion, as you pointed out is pure drivel. I will honestly be very surprised if the guys who wrote it still have jobs come 8.0. I don't even know how they messed up this colossally considering this expansion was supposed to be FF9 themed and FF9 is my favorite entry in the series. They had a WEALTH of ideas to draw from with it and instead we got this slop, I have to wonder if the writers even played FF9 or just read a synopsis ChatGPT spat out at them. FF9 tackles subjects like thanatophobia and nihilism beautifully while DT just kinda says "People are afraid to die but if you're nice to them they get over it eventually, also yum yum tacos!". Like, are you kidding me? What?

Plus DT didn't even introduce the thanatophobia theme until halfway through which gave me EXTREME whiplash. Contrast this to previous expansions where the message they try to get across is introduced VERY early, sometimes even pre-expansion. Take for example how Endwalker was HEAVILY dealing with nihilism and the meaning of life, we got hints of that message in the Shadowbringers patches when Fandaniel declared he wanted everyone to die in an orgy of pain and suffering.

Honestly it felt odd to try and use 9 in general as nihilism is, as I pointed out, one of its central themes. We just dealt with this as a theme in EW, and they clearly didn't want to double dip there so they just half-assed it and went for the thanatophobia side of 9 alone which without the other piece for context really just falls flat as they chose to avoid nihilism at all costs here when it truly goes hand-in-hand with thanatophobia in the source material. They shouldn't have used 9 here at all and instead saved it for way down the road imo and should have picked another entry for DT, they shot themselves in the leg from the very beginning.

[Veritas-Ancora]

I disagree with that, but only because Hydatos is the final part of Eureka, and OC isn't. Please don't put high difficulty content (or rather content needing high organisation in this case) in the middle of the narrative. put that at the end, like they did with BA.

I appreciate that you think patches should get harder as time goes on, genuine props there, but meanwhile OC is an absolute *chore* and not even remotely fun. If you're not playing Forked Tower, and demiatma is already done, all you have going for it is playing more phantom jobs which have been a terrible grind.

I'd expect it to at least be Eureka Pagos or Anemos at the barebones basics.

[brinn12]

This is the second time recently that he has steered FFXIV towards appealing to "busy people in modern society". Patch cycles are already about 4 weeks longer on average, and anyone with just 2 million gil (which you can easily get from the MSQ and a few tomes) can stop playing at X.0, return 2 years later at X.5, and simply buy a crafted set to be fully geared for the entire expansion. What else do we need? Most casual content they release doesn't last long either...

[DynnDiablos]

I do think we are going to see a transition toward more F2P aspects being integrated. I would not be surprised if we see more in-game rewards, a seasonal battle pass, and other features from popular MMOs and mobile games get implemented. My biggest fear is they do go F2P and then keep a monthly sub for folks wanting access to certain perks each month like ESO. But I feel a move in this direction will ultimately see a quality nosedive.

[brinn12]

I do think we are going to see a transition toward more F2P aspects being integrated. I would not be surprised if we see more in-game rewards, a seasonal battle pass, and other features from popular MMOs and mobile games get implemented. My biggest fear is they do go F2P and then keep a monthly sub for folks wanting access to certain perks each month like ESO. But I feel a move in this direction will ultimately see a quality nosedive.

This is exactly my impression as well. The amount of times he's been talking about these games is surprising. Astonishing, even.

[FeyFavilla]

I do think we are going to see a transition toward more F2P aspects being integrated. I would not be surprised if we see more in-game rewards, a seasonal battle pass, and other features from popular MMOs and mobile games get implemented. My biggest fear is they do go F2P and then keep a monthly sub for folks wanting access to certain perks each month like ESO. But I feel a move in this direction will ultimately see a quality nosedive.

Sadly this is entirely to be expected from a studio that thinks NFTs and AI are the future for gaming. Profit first and foremost.
I miss the times when games were for the most part made for the sake of having made a cool game, not only to make the stocks go up...